Switzerland and Back to Reality in America

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve written anything. 3 months to be exact. Guess I was just getting used to being back on American soil. I didn’t write anything about my time in Switzerland so I’ll give the abbreviated version. My brother got married to Franzi and they’re living in the land of cheese and chocolate (Bern, Switzerland to be exact). I had an amazing two weeks with them, getting to know my new family (hi sisters!) and enjoying all the incredible food the Swiss are known for. The wedding was awesome too. Very low key and perfect for J and Franzi. I got to roam around Bern and had great weather while I was there. For more pictures, click here.























All too quickly I had to head back to the states. It was very bittersweet to have the trip finally end. I was happy to be back in the US after almost 3 months away, but depression and reminiscing about the good times quickly set in. I’ve been back in SD for about 2 and a half months and things are back to normal. I got a job working at a surf camp and I’m still looking for a second one to pay the bills. I’m enjoying not working in an office though! It’s great to be outside most of the day at the beach. Kasey is back at Joe’s, slingin crabs. The edible kind. Jamie recently got a job at a coffee shop, and Ianne is doing the nightlife thing, working at Fluxx and Pasha.











So what is next? Well, the travel bug is still with me. I’m already itching for the next big thing. I’m planning a year living and working in Australia and New Zealand. Plus a month surfing in Indonesia. Definitely a big idea and one I’m currently trying to figure out how I’ll fund. Donating my eggs? Creating a pyramid scheme? Collecting cans again? :) I’m guessing good old fashioned hard work is how I’ll make it happen, but I’ll entertain any suggestions you may have. I’m not sure how you plan for living a year away from your home country so if you know anyone who has done this I’d love to talk to them. Until then, I’ll enjoy what San Diego has to offer. Summer is finally here!

The last days

Back in Kuta. The busy streets of Kuta are kind of a shock after being in the quiet Bukit area. Ianne and I wanted to try surfing again so we headed over to Double 6 beach and met up with a girl we had met in Padang Padang for a long day in the waves. It was really fun and webothgot a little better by the end. Dinner that night was another trip to Mojo's Burritos and a few oreos as a reward for surfing all day. We headed over to Bagus Pub on Poppies 2 and played a few rounds of cards and a little Ride the Bus.

The following day was spa day! We decided to treat ourselves to an afternoon at the spa since the trip is almost over. We had manicures, pedicures, a massage, body scrub, body mask, facial, flower bath, and hair creambath. It was heaven. Although they do things a little different here than in US spas. I think we all could have done without the laughing and talking from the massage girls while they were painting the body mask on our naked bodies. Kind of uncomfortable. But it was a great 5 hours.

The following day, March 28, was Ianne, Kasey and Jamie's last day in Southeast Asia! I stayed an extra day and then flew to Switzerland, but more about that later. The last day was just about doing everyone's "last's". Last banana pancake, last trip to the beach, last chance to shop, last mie goreng (fried noodles). That evening we headed over to Jimbaran Bay for a sunset drink and a seafood dinner.

First we went to Ayana Resort to go to Rock Bar. We had read about the bar in an airline magazine, and it was every bit as incredible as the pictures we had seen. First of all, Ayana is stunning. Infinity pools that look like they go directly into the ocean, beautiful cabanas and fountains, and then Rock Bar. You take an incline down to the bar, and it is built directly over cliffs with water crashing on the rocks below. The bar itself sticks out into the ocean. We got a few drinks (just 2 since they were pretty expensive) and settled in to watch the sunset. Alas, we didn't get our perfect sunset because the clouds covered it up in haze. But it was still a pretty stunning setting. We were getting hungry so we left Rock Bar and headed over to the Jimbaran Bay seafood stalls on the beach.

The seafood restaurants are all connected, and we'd heard that Cafe Bagus was an exceptionally good one. You walk past the kitchen and can see that they grill everything over coconuts, a traditional Balinese cooking method. We decided to share red snapper and king prawns. The food was delicious and they included different sauces, a sp

icy spinach dish, rice and french fries. It was a great way to end the trip. That night I had to say goodbye to the girls and they headed to the airport to begin the long journey back to the US.

I on the other hand, am on my way to Switzerland to see my brother get married! He met Franzi on his own travels through South America and now they're getting married on Friday. It should be pretty interesting to meet her family. Off to the next adventure.

Padang Padang, Bingin, Uluwatu - get your ass here if you surf

We left Kuta on March 22 and headed further south to the Bukit, the southern tip of Bali. It consists of several beaches, all of which are famous surf breaks. Our taxi driver suggested we stay in Padang Padang because it's between all the beaches. Once we got there and started walking around, it was pretty evident that you need a moto to get around this area. You can get to the beach and a few restaurants but other than that, you need a moto to get anywhere. We went to Padang Padang beach our first day and watched the surfers. The reef is pretty intense here and these definitely aren't beginner waves. It's super shallow pretty far out and if you don't know what you're doing you can get slammed on the rocks. But we were just laying on the beach. At night we went to a cute little spot (can't remember the name) and the owner, Cacho, introduced us to some guys from Barcelona who we played jenga with.

The following morning we went to Nusa Dua, an upscale beach community with private beaches for each hotel. We were pretty limited in where we could go since we weren't staying there, and everything was expensive. I'd say skip this beach if you aren't staying in Nusa Dua.

March 24 we finally rented motos to check out the other beaches in the area. We had a pretty shaky start and these motos were a bit touchier than the ones in Lombok. Both Jamie and Ianne almost ended up in a ditch. But they did some good off-roading with Kasey and I on the back. It took us awhile to find Bingin Beach, but after some crazy moto riding and walking through what looked like back alleys, we found it. By the time we found Bingin it was high tide and there basically wasn't any beach left. The waves were breaking right on the little restaurant we were at. We watched some surfers and body boarders here, and they were pretty damn good. Jamie has a great video of one of the better surfers.

Later in the day we headed over to Uluwatu which ended up being everyone's favorite destination in the area. To get to the beach you walk down a bunch of stone steps into a cave, crawl over the rocks and climb a rickety staircase built right into the rock to get up to an area called the sandbox, which is basically just a flat rock with some sand on top. It's right in the ocean and you're surrounded by rocks and small shops on cliffsides. From here we had a great view and Ianne and I did a little swimming in the shallows. This area is also pretty rocky and not for beginner surfers. The tide is pretty strong. Later on we watched the sunset from a bar called The Edge, which is on the edge of the cliff.










Uluwatu and Padang Padang are much more relaxed than the craziness of Kuta. It's got more of the surfer vibe and far less partying. Uluwatu should definitely be on the list of places to see in Bali.

Back to Kuta tomorrow for the last few days of the trip!

Kuta, Bali

We're back in Bali after a few weeks away. Kuta is hard to describe. On the one hand, it is exactly as people say - very crowded, loud, dirty, and a young party scene. On the other hand, it is exciting, a good surf spot, and has that relaxed vibe.

We stayed at Suka Beach Inn off of Poppies 2. The main roads are Poppies 1 & 2. Ianne, Jamie and I really wanted a chance to surf, so we went down to the beach in Kuta and found a few guys that had been recommended to us as good teachers. Dennis, Randy, and Josh spent the day pushing the three of us into waves and we all did pretty good. Everyone got up, so that's a success. This beach is for beginners, so the waves are pretty small at low tide, but it was awesome. The only downside is that the water is pretty dirty. That night we listened to live music at Apache Reggae Bar. It's 24/7 Bob Marley around here.










The next day we went shopping in the Seminyak area. It's a bit ritzier than Kuta, and has fancy shops and hotels. I'd say if you're coming to the Kuta area and you're over 35 with a bit of money to spend, stay here rather than in Kuta. It's still on the beach and is within walking distance of everything.

Now it's March 22 and we have about a week left of our trip so we're heading even further south to Padang Padang, Bingin and Uluwatu to see some world famous waves.

Gili Trawangan - a must see

Gili Trawangan is a great little island off the northern coast of Lombok. It's part of a series of three islands, collectively called the Gili Islands - Trawangan is the largest, Meno and Air are much smaller. And largest is a relative term. Gili T was about 4 km the whole way around. You can bike it in one hour. It's so small they don't even have police, just local village people who take care of any "problems".











We stayed at a cute little place called Buddha Dive in the central area and spent the first day just walking around checking out the tiny island. There's basically one main dirt alley with restaurants, bars and small guesthouses on either side. We spent six days total here, but could have spent a minimum of ten. It's a great place to just relax and unwind. We basically just sat at the beach, or walked around town the whole time.

We all did a yoga class at Gili Yoga - Andrea, you would have loved this place. At night we would go to one of the local bars for a few drinks.

After three days at Buddha Dive, we decided to treat ourselves to a really nice place. We got a two bedroom villa with a private pool at The Trawangan and it was heaven. We spent the next three days mainly at the villa, living the life.















This is a really abbreviated post about what we did in Gili, but it was mostly lounging around or riding bikes around the island. There are no cars or motos allowed, just bikes and cidomos, small horse-drawn carriages. After six days of hanging out, we decided to head back to the real world and see southern Bali. We had heard Kuta sucks because it is super crowded but wanted to check it out for ourselves. Off for our last long travel day! 7 hours in vans, ferries, and cars.

Senggigi, Lombok and the shortest possible stay in Padang Bai

Padang Bai was terrible. It was a garbage covered town with hawkers everywhere. Apparently there is another side to it that people like, and the beach is great, but from what we saw it sucked. Within 5 minutes of arriving we were wondering how we could get out of there. We stayed in what should have been a very cute little bungalow with a mosquito net covering the bed and open windows with bamboo walls, but the bugs were pretty intense and the bathroom was VERY basic. Pretty gross actually. We spent one night and then took a 4 hour ferry to Lombok. From there we drove up to the resort town of Senggigi and spent our first night at a place called Hotel Elen. Horrible night #2. This place was even dirtier than Padang Bai and at 4:55 am the mosque loudspeaker went off calling everyone to prayer. It sounded like it was in our room.

The following day we moved to Lina Cottages, which were much nicer and right on the water. We walked around town and ate really good burritos for dinner. The following day we rented motorbikes and drove around a small area of Lombok. We were a little shaky at first but had a great time riding around. There aren't many people here so it's ideal for learning to ride. Right when we got back to town it started pouring again so we stopped for a lunch of jaffles - a bread pocket filled with your choice of cheese, tomato and onion or fruit. At night we gave ourselves a treat and had a spa night. Massages, facials and body scrubs! It was awesome. Then we listened to live music at Happy Cafe.

The following day, Kasey headed to the beach and the rest of us rented motos again. We heard about the quake in Japan and the tsunami warning for Bali and Lombok and kind of freaked out a bit. The locals didn't seem scared but we were because there wouldn't really be anywhere for us to go if we did have a tsunami. We decided to just prepare to run if we had to, but sat at the beach and had beers while we waited for the warning to be lifted. We went to a karaoke bar that night and met an older American man who was the bar's dj. Greg was spinning some serious tunes for a 65+ year old man. The next morning we took off for another ride to a nearby island, Gili Trawangan.

Ubud and Nyepi

We arrived in Bali at about 12:00am and were met at the airport by Nyoman, our host for the next few days. He drove us to Ubud, which is in the northeastern part of Bali, and its cultural center. When we got to the house we were staying at we all freaked out because it was so beautiful. Definitely a treat after staying in smelly, dirty rooms everywhere else. Thanks to Jamie's mom for putting us up there for a few days, we had an incredible time! We got up early our first morning there to do some grocery shopping and to prepare for Nyepi, a day of silence in Bali where no one is allowed to leave their houses or be loud. Even tourists in hotels are forced to stay inside. We went to a village ceremony and then saw the procession of ogoh-ogoh monsters, giant creations made by the villagers that are paraded down the street through yelling people and firecrackers. Lots of noise is made to frighten away evil spirits.











The day after the monsters we spent the day at the villa, just laying by the pool and watching movies. Bali is still in its rainy season so we've had a good amount of rain.

Our third day in Ubud we took a small tour of the area and visited Nyoman's cousin's stone carving shop and drove through a local rice paddy. We went into town and tried to go to a class at Yoga Barn, but it was a partners class, so we just walked around the shops. Later at the villa, we watched girls do a traditional Balinese dance for us. We all went to bed really early because the next morning we were picked up at 2am to do a hike up the Mount Batur volcano for sunrise. It was cold and dark and extremely hard to climb a volcano when all you have is a penlight to guide you. The view from the top was rewarding, although the sunrise itself kind of sucked since it was clouded over. We ate boiled banana sandwiches and hard boiled eggs that our guides cooked in a hot pocket of the volcano. The climb down was just as hard as the climb up since it was so sandy. Later in the day Nyoman drove us to Padang Bai, a port town on the eastern side of Bali so we could head to the island of Lombok. Goodbye Bali!

Thanks again Jamie's mom and Nyoman, the villa was incredible!

Singapore - the America of Southeast Asia

After landing at the Singapore airport at 1:24am local time, we thought it would be stupid to spend money on a hostel for the night, so we instead decided to sleep on the floor of the airport. Ok, maybe plenty of people have done that, but seating is usually reserved for the inside of the airport, not once you've gone through baggage claim and you're on the way out. We had to sleep on the hard tile floor in the corner of the busy ticketing area. It was about the worst nights sleep we've ever had. Everyone woke up grumpy, sore and exhausted. We hopped on the MRT and rode to our hostel. After a little breakfast at the local McDonalds, we headed over to the Orchard Road area, which is famous for its shopping. There's literally a shopping mall on every block of Orchard Road, if not more. These people love to shop. I guess people come from all over to shop here. But seeing as we're on a backpacking trip we're too poor for any of that. We just walked around and enjoyed the food courts, which are insane. The food looks like works of art. Next we went for a little walk around the Chinatown area.

Oh, I don't want to forget Jamie's little mistake. While we were walking around we noticed how clean Singapore is. There's not a speck of trash anywhere. Jamie was looking for somewhere to throw away her coffee cup and saw what looked like a burned out red trash bin. As she was throwing it away, a woman started gesturing wildly at her and yelling "noooooo!" She had accidentally thrown her garbage in a prayer bin, not a garbage can. A little embarrassing, and perhaps a little bit of bad karma for Jamie. But pretty funny for the rest of us. :)

Ok so back to Chinatown. We walked around the little shops and had some dinner. Fish ball soup for Jamie and Ianne, black pepper beef for Kasey and I. After dinner we went out in the Clarke Quay area. It's a touristy little area by the river. We went down looking for a bar called The Clinic, but found out that drinks are $50 singapore dollars. Too rich for our blood. The bar itself is a little morbid. You sit in wheelchairs and drink your drink out of IV bags. We settled in an Irish bar called Mulligans for $15 pints.

The next day we saw Little India, which really isn't that exciting. It's mostly just a neighborhood of Indian people going about their day. We had PB&J sandwiches in a park and split off. Ianne & Jamie went to an art museum and Kasey and I wandered around the marina, where we saw the "boat on a building" up close. We also saw the famous Merlion. At night we met up with a friend of Ianne's who showed us a good time at a "lady club". Mostly it's a club with a few different male singers, and then at the end of the night a bunch of guys parade up on the stage and girls bid on them. Use your imagination for what they're bidding for. The guy who gets the highest amount is crowned. Pretty weird night, but definitely fun.






















Our last day we visited the Botanic Gardens, then headed off to the airport. Last big flight of the trip - on to Bali!

The food

If you know me at all, you know I've been obsessing over the food since we arrived. What kind of blog wouldn't mention all the yummy dishes we've had?? I'll start with the best, and everyone's favorite.

Pad thai from a street vendor in Bangkok. It may not be the cleanest or fanciest dish, but it consistently tastes amazing, is ready in seconds and costs about 50 baht. We've eaten it in restaurants, on street corners and in Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore. We all agree, it's best from a street vendor in Bangkok.










Another favorite is papaya salad, made of young papaya, spicy chilli, i think cabbage, and whatever spicy sauce they put in it. I really have no idea what it's made of, but it basically sets your mouth on fire. That doesn't sound so good, but it really is. Here's a pic of us getting it made fresh on the beach.










Another great dish that I don't have a picture of is tom yam kung, a spicy seafood soup. I stole this pic from google to illustrate its yummyness.









We've also eaten our share of Western food, but it never lives up to your expectations. It's best to just eat the local foods while you are here and wait for Western food when you get home. Plus we always end up feeling sick after eating it. The portions are just too big.

Another of our go-to meals has been fried rice or fried noodles. They're pretty good everywhere you go, and you know what to expect.

I've got plenty more food pictures, but this is kind of a boring topic for non-foodies, so I'll just end it here.

Phi Phi Island

After Krabi we headed to Koh Phi Phi for some relaxation after all the action. The ferry to Phi Phi is about an hour and a half from Krabi, so not so bad. The little town where you land is very tiny, on a small strip of the island. Everything is packed in super tight and at first glance seems pretty shitty. Lots of guesthouses, bars, restaurants, and shops selling every touristy thing you can imagine. We stayed at Harmony House, a crap guesthouse on the far end of the village. The room is disgusting and we paid quite a bit to stay there, but everything on Phi Phi is expensive.

Our first day on Phi Phi we hung out at the bay and got crispy. Well, I got crispy, the other girls turned another shade of brown. After dinner we headed to a little beach bar called Bohemian Bar and watched the local kids do a pretty amazing fire show. It's incredible how fast they can twirl a stick of fire. You can tell they are really good dancers too, and they match their movements to the music.

Our second day in Phi Phi (pronounced "pee pee") we browsed the little shops in town and relaxed on the beach again. Our lives are so hard. :) For sunset, we walked up a million steps to the viewpoint of both bays. It's a great view of the town and the whole island. So far the sunsets have been kind of disappointing because they always set behind a mountain or among clouds so you don't get to see the brilliant colors. Not that I'm complaining. I'll take a crappy sunset on Phi Phi over real life any day. At night we saw another fire show at Carlito's Bar, but this time they were more professional and even did a number to a Michael Jackson song where the guy dressed as MJ. Pretty entertaining.

Day three on Phi Phi was awesome. We got up early and headed out for an all day boat tour of Phi Phi Don and Phi Phi Leh. We stopped at 9 different places, all beautiful lagoons and bays, including places where we could snorkel. The most famous stop was Maya Bay, where they filmed scenes from the movie The Beach. The Leonardo Dicaprio movie. It's a stunning little area and pictures don't do it justice. You have to go and experience the lush forest and crystal clear water yourself. We also stopped on a few beaches where monkeys live. Doing this boat tour made Koh Phi Phi the most beautiful area on our trip so far.

Our last night in Phi Phi we met up with a few people we had met in Cambodia, and an Aussie we met on the beach in Phi Phi. We had an awesome dinner at Papaya Restaurant, heard some live Thai music (November Rain cover with a Thai accent...kind of odd) and played cards at the Irish pub. Hope to meet up with you again Nicole and James! And Chris, if you see this, I'll be visiting you in Sydney sometime next year.

We were sorry to leave Phi Phi, especially since we had to head to Phuket to fly out of Thailand. But now it's off to Singapore!